Aug 17-19 - a long trip

Yup ... we're in Florida. Yup ... it's hot.

On Friday we drove the 700 miles from the cottage to Exton PA, where Stef lives. We got off to a slightly slower start, leaving around 6:45 a.m., ultimately arriving at Stef's at 7:45 p.m. It was slower pulling the boat because I pretty well stick at 7mph over the speed limit, on cruise control, in the right-hand lane. There is occasionally traffic slower than me which I will pass but there is no need to go wild and let's face it -- I'm retired and we are not in that much of a rush.

Because we were late leaving and slow going we saw that there was a big backup at the Queenston/Lewiston bridge across the Niagara River into the U.S. so we took the route to Niagara Falls and crossed at the Rainbow Bridge. The line was relatively short, perhaps 1/2 hour wait and the scenery is definitely better -- a good view of the Falls as you sit on the bridge.

I set the Garmin GPS trip record before we started and recorded a maximum speed of 81.something -- pretty moderate when you consider the speed that some of the traffic moves. Without towing something it's pretty easy to record max's in the 90's for short bursts with fast moving traffic. For any of you who have driven highway 400 between Toronto and Barrie you know what I mean.

It's 950 miles from Exton PA to New Smyrna Beach -- 250 more than the Exton-Cottage route. However, the roads are good (I95 all the way), there is always traffic so it moves right along, and there is no border to cross, so this trip is usually around 14 hours driving and 15 hours total ... vs the Exton-Cottage which averages 12 hours total. We've done the Cottage trip in less time ... perhaps 11 hours, but there have also been long trips (I remember one notable 17 hour trip in the snow).

15 hour total, however, depends on when you hit Washington/Richmond and the time of the week and the time of the year. We left Stef's about 6:45 a.m. (sounds repetitive) but didn't arrive in NSB until 12:40 a.m. the next day. We had fairly clear sailing until Washington, which was my big concern, but got tied up in traffic for the next three hours driving the one hour route from Washington to Richmond. Slow ? ... we crawled or were stopped. After Richmond it opened right up and we had almost no traffic for the rest of the trip. We did make a number of stops though -- gas, because I average 16 mpg towing the boat; food/restroom -- we were in no real hurry so we hit a number of Interstate rest areas and stopped for lunch, which we ate in the car and dinner, stopping for a full hour to eat at a Cracker Barrel. ps -- this was our first time ever in a Cracker Barrel and it was good ... and cheap. We'll use this one again. We probably stopped 10 times in total.

Other than the crawling between Washington and Richmond, my cruise control got quite a workout. We never exceeded the 81.something that I had recorded the previous day even though Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have speed limits of 70 mph on most of I95. It was pretty easy going. When we showed up at Stef's with the boat she expressed some concerns about the reduced safety factor pulling a trailer -- and I too have seen crazy people, especially on highway 69 between Barrie and Parry Sound, pulling boats. The X5 though is a great vehicle for towing -- it's heavy and stable, rated for pulling 6000 pounds. The Bayliner & trailer only add up to 1600 pounds and it is a very stable combination. My driving style is also different pulling a load -- there is no room for agressive driving with a trailer.

About mid-afternoon my eyes were starting to burn a little from the sun glare and the dry air from the air conditioning, so Sandy took a spell at the wheel and I had a snooze. She has taken her turn driving with a trailer behind before -- the U-haul that we pulled down last year.

Kylie was not feeling well -- I take that back -- she was feeling fine but most of what she ate she could not keep down. Breakfast and dinner were lost at rest stops shortly afterwards. By the end of yesterday she was feeling much better -- some stomach flu I guess.

Yesterday -- we didn't do much. I went over to the boat store and picked up some exciting stuff -- fuel stabilizer, grease, that kind of thing -- Sandy went to the dog beach with Kylie, Lauren & Abby; we went to the local beach after dinner with Lauren. Kylie couldn't take the sun with the way that she was feeling so spent much of the day inside. We went grocery shopping ... had barbecued catfish for dinner along with rice and veggies from the garden up north that we brought down with us. Our local fish store is closed on Sunday and Monday so the catfish came from Publix, normally we wouldn't be eating farmed fish down here.

Today we hope to go out in the boat. Hopefully Kylie will be feeling better.

... more later